An electric Emergency Shut-Down (“ESD”) valve actuator is relied upon to actuate a valve to a fail-safe position in the event of a system control failure. An example of such a system failure would be when a separator floods on an oil or gas well. When the master control system detects such a control failure, it can actuate the ESD to the fail-safe position stopping the flow of incoming oil or gas. As a critical element in a safety system, it is important that the ESD valve works correctly in all situations, even if abnormal. There are four abnormal major failure modes in a typical system protected with an electrical ESD valve. The first, when the main power fails, can be solved with either a mechanical or battery-based backup energy storage system that has enough energy to actuate the valve when this failure occurs. The other three failure modes occur when the ESD controller, the backup energy source or the master controller fails. If any of these three items cease to function, the fail-safe feature will compromised and catastrophic failure can occur. In systems where this failure cannot be tolerated, it is important to minimize the risk of any of these three failure modes occurring.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide a system and method that can minimize these risks.